DUTCH BAROQUE STONE-PAINTED CARVED LIMEWOOD MIRROR
Further images
AN IMPORTANT DUTCH BAROQUE STONE-PAINTED CARVED LIMEWOOD MIRROR, DATED 1711.
With later plate. The frame carved with putti and trophies of arms. The apron with putti bearing laurels framing the sun rising above the sea and the date 1711. The cresting with martial putti flanking a cipher surmounted by a Royal crown. Dry-stripped back to the original stone paint.
57.5in. (146cm) high x 46in. (117cm) wide
Literature
This magnificent mirror is dated 1711 and carved with the combined ciphers of John William Friso, Prince of Orange (1687-1711) and his son William Karel Friso, Prince of Orange (1711-1751), first hereditary stadtholder of the Netherlands.
John William Friso became a general of the Dutch troops during the war of the Spanish Succession, under the command of the Duke of Marlborough. He was an active and successful commander but his career was cut short when he drowned on 14th July 1711 when the ferry crossing the Moerdyk was overturned in heavy weather. His son William Karel Friso was born six weeks after his death. This frame commemorates both the death of the father and the birth of the son.
The design of the mirror relates closely to the work of Daniel Marot (1661-1752), the great French-born Dutch Baroque architect, furniture designer and engraver. He worked for a long time in England, at the court of William and Mary and in the Dutch Republic, where he was naturalized in 1709.